


What's In A Name?

by FlashBastard



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Gen, Mona Lisa, Names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-01 10:43:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20813816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlashBastard/pseuds/FlashBastard
Summary: Crowley does some snooping and finds out something interesting about A.Z. Fell.





	What's In A Name?

Aziraphale was reading and Crowley could tell from his body language that the book wasn't going to be put down any time soon. This happened on occasion. Aziraphale would get lost in a book and Crowley would be left to entertain himself. When that happened sometimes he would get drunk, sometimes he would go through the shop and rearrange some of the books just to irritate Aziraphale, and sometimes he would snoop. Today seemed like a snooping kind of a day. 

"Angel?" Crowley said after he found a particularly interesting piece of paper. 

"Yes, Crowley?" Aziraphale asked without looking up from his book. 

"It's been....what has it been.....eighty years since the incident with the Nazi's, right? Oh dear Satan it's been eighty years." Crowley shook his head. It seemed that time flew even for immortals. 

"Yes, that sounds about right." Aziraphale still wasn't looking up from his book. 

"So, in all those eighty years. Why am I just now, snooping on your desk and coming across this piece of paper, finding out about Anthony Zachariah Fell?" Crowley raised an eyebrow as he held up the paper in question. 

"I'm sorry?" Now Aziraphale kept his eyes on the book to avoid looking at Crowley. 

"This letter. Official looking thing. It's addressed to Anthony Zachariah Fell." Crowley wasn't going to let this be ignored. 

"Right. Well, that is the owner of the shop, after all." He shrugged. 

"You've had eighty years to tell me about this, angel. Quite a few more than that, actually, if you decided on those names when you became Mr A.Z. Fell. So why am I just now learning about it?" Crowley slipped his sunglasses off and just stared at Aziraphale, trying not to smile. 

"Didn't seem important." Aziraphale shrugged again. He'd read the same sentence four times but he wasn't going to put the book down. 

"It didn't seem important?" Crowley wasn't hiding his smile anymore. "We have the same first name and you didn't think it was important?" He chuckled. 

"Yes, well. I'm sure I had the name first so perhaps you just copied me." Aziraphale finally put the book down and tried to look smug. 

"Oh, I seriously doubt you had the name first. But I couldn't possibly have copied you if I didn't even know you'd chosen the name to begin with." Crowley got up and went to sit next to Aziraphale on the couch. 

"I most definitely had the name first. I decided on it back when I opened the book shop. That was over two hundred years ago." Aziraphale sat a little straighter. So it was going to be a competition, okay. 

"Well, to be fair, I didn't actually give myself the name. It was given to me." Crowley put his arm across the back of the couch and just watched Aziraphale. 

"Really? You didn't give yourself that name?" Aziraphale furrowed his brow a bit. "Who did?" And why haven't you told me about it, he thought. 

"Are you sure you want to know? It will prove that I've had the name far longer than you have" Crowley had been smirking almost the entire time. 

"Well now you have to tell me." Aziraphale shifted so he could look at Crowley better. 

"Leonardo da Vinci." Crowley was outright grinning at this point. Azirpahale's eyes went a bit wide. 

"But that would mean that you've been Anthony since...." He tried to do the math in his head. 

"1502." Crowley replied, settling into the couch a bit more. "I'm the reason the Mona Lisa has a smile." 

"You can't possibly...." Aziraphale shook his head. 

"Not like that." Crowley rolled his eyes. "The sketch that Leo did before the actual painting. It's hanging in my flat. She's not smiling at all. Actually looks bored, which the poor woman was. She hated posing." Crowley shrugged. "I convinced him to give her just a hint of a smile. Make her look like she's hiding something." 

"But what does that have to do with you having the name Anthony?" Aziraphale raised an eyebrow. 

"Oh, that's simple enough. When I first met Leonardo he asked me what my name was. I told him Crowley and he shook his head. Said that name would never do and I was going to be Antonio from then on. Crowley doesn't translate to any other language. Also, he said that the middle of my name has owl in it and he absolutely hated owls." Crowley shrugged again. 

"So, Leonardo da Vinci changed your name because he hated owls?" Aziraphale was finding it all completely hard to believe. 

"I think it actually had more to do with the fact that he had trouble writing ow together without it looking off. But a genius like Leo would never admit to having an issue like that, right?" Crowley smiled a little. He really had enjoyed spending time with the man. 

"So you've been Anthony for over five hundred years." Aziraphale sighed. "And then I chose Anthony as a first name." He looked at Crowley. "We've both been Anthony for over two hundred years." 

"It's actually quite funny when you think about it." Crowley said before getting up and going back to the desk. 

"Yes, hilarious." Aziraphale said flatly. He suddenly wasn't interested in the rest of his book.


End file.
